Have you ever heard someone say, “I was frightened to death!” Maybe you have said it yourself. Here was someone who was frightened to Life! I wish more people could be frightened to Life!
Conditions for Paul and Silas in the prison were awful. The jailor put them “into the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.” (verses 23- 24.) This had happened because of a wonderful miracle in a girl’s life, as a result of them preaching about Jesus! (Acts 16:16-24.)
But evil wasn’t winning!
“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew opened, and everybody’s chains came loose. The jailor woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open … he thought that the prisoners had escaped.” He was frightened to death! So “he drew his sword and was about to kill himself … But Paul shouted, ‘Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!’” (verses 25-28.)
Have you ever been so afraid that you just wanted to die? Have you ever noticed the FAITH and PEACE that TRUE CHRISTIANS can have in times of great trouble? They have LIFE and PEACE through their faith in Jesus, their only Priest, that gives them great HOPE and CONFIDENCE. (Hebrews 4:14-16. 10:10-23.)
“The jailor called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’” (verses 29-30.) The jailor had certainly noticed the joy and peace that Paul and Silas had had, even when they were battered and bruised and imprisoned. He longed to have that kind of Life. (John 10:10.)
Paul and Silas said: "BELIEVE IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, AND YOU WILL BE SAVED." (verse 31.) Eternal Life is a free gift which he had only to receive by faith, on the merits of Jesus. (Roman 6:23.)
Paul and Silas “spoke the word of the Lord to him, and to all the others in his house.” That night the cruel jailor, and his family, received the new Life of God, by faith in Jesus as their Priest and Saviour. He was “filled with joy because he had come to believe in God – he and his whole family.” They had been frightened to Life!
There and then the jailor “and all his family were baptised” because they all “believed in God” and had become His children. (John 1:12-13.) “The jailer … washed their wounds … and brought them into his house and set a meal before them.” (verses 33-34.)
Will God have to use some terrible experience in your life to try to get you to be frightened to Life? - making you urgently turn to Priest Jesus to save and keep you from sin, and make you ready for God. (1stPeter 3:18. Amos 4:12.)
Read Acts chapter 16, verses 23-34.
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